What is Persuasive design?

With a lot of talk on usability and accessibility – persuasion through design is taking a bit of a back seat, but with our focus on conversion and getting results persuasive design is constantly on our minds.

Persuasive design goes beyond usability, but there is obviously no point motivating users to make a sale when the functionality lets you down. It’s more about understanding the thought process and providing the information to answer any questions, ultimately making it easier to make the right decision.

For example, In a rush I recently bought a bikini online for a holiday. I saw the bikini I wanted but the sizing was European. Within minutes I was able to translate the sizing to my UK size, find out that if I ordered the item before 2pm it would arrive the next day in time for my holiday and smoothly go through the transaction process. Without knowing the answers to these key points I wouldn’t have bought it.

Once the answers to users questions has been addressed, then when creating the page designers should be asking themselves ‘what do I want them to do next?’ and making this path clear.

So you can see it’s not solely the responsibility of the designers and developers when it comes to conversion results. It’s also the job of the client to supply them with all the information the user may need about your product and ultimately lead that user in the right direction to become a customer.